Lay's Potato Chips: Wasabi Ginger

Crisp, crunchy creativity

When you have a corner on a mass-produced foodstuff market, you can get a little creative. Jelly Belly, the famous jelly bean confectioner, branched out from its original 50 flavors adding new tastes like guava and buttered popcorn—but went too far with crowd pleasers such as canned dog food and barf. The potato chip masters at Frito-Lay made a similar gamble with its "Do Us A Flavor" contests, which ask ordinary citizens to come up with new flavors for Lay's potato chips. The newest contest recently closed, but the first resulted in seeing Cappuccino, Cheddar Bacon Mac & Cheese, Mango Salsa and Wasabi Ginger on store shelves. Cappuccino and Mango Salsa have not fared well—Amazon user L. Fleishman called cappuccino "a flavor apocalypse, a taste experiment that tragically escaped from the laboratory, the snack thing that should not be."

Here at Boise Weekly, we agree. The Cheddar Bacon Mac & Cheese was just OK, but all of us really liked the Wasabi Ginger. It has a horseradish hint on the nose, and on the palate, it's subtly sweet and gingery without leaving a lingering taste in your mouth. When dill pickle and jalapeno chips aren't cutting it, try a bag of wasabi ginger.